Greek Texts & Translations

It occurred to me to tell of the following men also, firstly Apollodorus, commander of the mercenaries, who was an Athenian dispatched by Arsites, satrap of Phrygia by the Hellespont, and saved their city for the Perinthians when Philip had invaded their territory with an army. ^note He, then, is buried here, and also Eubulus ^note the son of Spintharus, along with men who though brave were not attended by good fortune; some attacked Lachares when he was tyrant, others planned the capture of the Peiraeus when in the hands of a Macedonian garrison, but before the deed could be accomplished were betrayed by their accomplices and put to death.

Here also lie those who fell near Corinth. ^note Heaven showed most distinctly here and again at Leuctra ^note that those whom the Greeks call brave are as nothing if Good Fortune be not with them, seeing that the Lacedaemonians, who had on this occasion overcome Corinthians and Athenians, and furthermore Argives and Boeotians, were afterwards at Leuctra so utterly overthrown by the Boeotians alone. After those who were killed at Corinth, we come across elegiac verses declaring that one and the same slab has been erected to those who died in Euboea and Chios ^note, and to those who perished in the remote parts of the continent of Asia, or in Sicily.

The names of the generals are inscribed with the exception of Nicias, and among the private soldiers are included the Plataeans along with the Athenians. This is the reason why Nicias was passed over, and my account is identical with that of Philistus, who says that while Demosthenes made a truce for the others and excluded himself, attempting to commit suicide when taken prisoner, Nicias voluntarily submitted to the surrender. ^note For this reason Nicias had not his name inscribed on the slab, being condemned as a voluntary prisoner and an unworthy soldier.

On another slab are the names of those who fought in the region of Thrace and at Megara ^note, and when Alcibiades persuaded the Arcadians in Mantinea and the Eleans to revolt from the Lacedaemonians ^note, and of those who were victorious over the Syracusans before Demosthenes arrived in Sicily. Here were buried also those who fought in the sea-fights near the Hellespont ^note, those who opposed the Macedonians at Charonea ^note, those who were killed at Delium in the territory of Tanagra ^note, the men Leosthenes led into Thessaly, those who sailed with Cimon to Cyprus ^note, and of those who with Olympiodorus ^note expelled the garrison not more than thirteen men.

The Athenians declare that when the Romans were waging a border war they sent a small force to help them, and later on five Attic warships assisted the Romans in a naval action against the Carthaginians. Accordingly these men also have their grave here. The achievements of Tolmides and his men, and the manner of their death, I have already set forth, and any who are interested may take note that they are buried along this road. Here lie too those who with Cimon achieved the great feat of winning a land and naval victory on one and the same day. ^note

Here also are buried Conon and Timotheus, father and son, the second pair thus related to accomplish illustrious deeds, Miltiades and Cimon being the first; Zeno too, the son of Mnaseas and Chrysippus ^note of Soli, Nicias the son of Nicomedes, the best painter from life of all his contemporaries, Harmodius and Aristogeiton, who killed Hipparchus, the son of Peisistratus; there are also two orators, Ephialtes, who was chiefly responsible for the abolition of the privileges of the Areopagus ^note, and Lycurgus, ^note the son of Lycophron;

Lycurgus provided for the state-treasury six thousand five hundred talents more than Pericles, the son of Xanthippus, collected, and furnished for the procession of the Goddess golden figures of Victory and ornaments for a hundred maidens; for war he provided arms and missiles, besides increasing the fleet to four hundred warships. As for buildings, he completed the theater that others had begun, while during his political life he built dockyards in the Peiraeus and the gymnasium near what is called the Lyceum. Everything made of silver or gold became part of the plunder Lachares made away with when he became tyrant, but the buildings remained to my time.